Corn Star

Fittingly, King Corn hit one of the largest issues that I face at my site every day right on the head - the fact that cheap food is unhealthy food. Unfortunately, there are days when I serve the kids who come to lunch a burger, previously frozen and pre-packaged, and just as the documentary said, it's really nothing more than "fat disguised as meat." However, there's no way for me to even suggest a healthier alternative such as grass fed or organic beef. The cost would throw our program under. I felt at least a little consoled when the film began talking about corn syrup in soda, because soda isn't served to our kids at all during the day. They drink milk with their meals. But then I know that I don't control what they drink at home, or on the weekends. And I thought about how there's really no guarantee that the milk they drink isn't from cows in just as terrible a situation as the beef in the film. It's not just the corn and the beef industries. We've got to worry about dairy, about other produce, about other packaged foods as well. Food shouldn't be this scary.

The film also points out that this generation spends a smaller percentage of its income on food than any generation prior. If we're spending so little on food, then why do so many continue to grow hungry? Obviously there are thousands of responses that one could put forth to this question. But it's one of the great paradoxes that we are all up against this summer. Another great and terrible paradox pointed out by this documentary is the fact that 70% of the antibiotics in this country go to animals. Skirting around the issue of animal cruelty (a monster in itself), that's tons of medicine that could be going to people who can't afford it all around the world. What can we do, as participants in this twisted system, to re-route those antibiotics to the people that really need it? Is it even possible?

And then, there's the issue of corn itself. Recent corn crops are the largest in U.S. history. Will they just keep getting bigger? CAN they? Or is there a breaking point - a point where the entire system grows too large to support itself and collapses into inevitable demise. Think of the devastation that would cause, in the entire line of corn production and consumption. Furthermore, one can sort of go out on a limb and wonder what will happen to corn farms as our nation's population continues to expand. Look at the way that small towns in Ohio have expanded just over the last century. The rural Midwest can't stay rural forever, at the rate our population's expanding. Eventually, even if it's decades and decades from now, we're going to need that space. And who's going to come first: people, or corn?

It's a scary question, but if we don't use corn products in our processed foods... what will we use? People demand those unhealthy products just the way they are. How can we change both the producers' and the consumers' perspectives, when the producers only care about a high demand and the consumers and processors only care about a low price? How do we get back to the natural food we once less than a century ago with this large of a population to feed? How can we find a way to bring natural, healthy food to such large masses? Chemicals that cannot be touched by unprotected hands go into corn syrup. And that's not something we want in our bodies, nor in anyone else's. However, I do believe that documentaries like this one are the first step in correcting these multitudes of issues. By getting the word out there, we at least make the public aware of the problem.

Sydney